Ivanka Trump watched her father get shot on live television and her first move was to turn her children away from the screen.
Now she's talking about it for the first time.
She sat down with The Diary of a CEO this week and what came out – grief, forgiveness, and one sentence about Butler – is something nobody expected to hear.
Ivana Trump's Death and Jared Kushner's Cancer Hit Within Weeks of Each Other
Ivanka Trump's last four years make most people's worst years look mild.
In July 2022, her mother Ivana was found dead at 73 at the bottom of a staircase in her Manhattan home – gone before anyone could say goodbye.
"Losing a parent – it hits different," Ivanka said, pausing to collect herself.
She kept going: "Especially unexpectedly. Especially post-COVID, which robbed so many of us of so many years."
That August, her husband Jared Kushner went under the knife for a second time for thyroid cancer – a diagnosis he had hidden during Trump's first term and only disclosed in his 2022 memoir Breaking History. The surgery came weeks after Ivana's death.
She sought therapy.
Not because she was weak.
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Because she was processing her mother's death and her husband's second cancer surgery at the same time, while adjusting to life outside Washington – saying almost nothing publicly about any of it.
"My mother taught me a lot about bringing intention to what you do," she said, voice cracking.
She paused.
She asked for a tissue.
Ivanka Trump Describes Watching the Butler Assassination Attempt in Real Time
Then she told the story nobody had heard her tell in detail before.
She was at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey – by the pool with two of her children – when July 13, 2024 came through the television in front of her.
She turned the kids away from the screen before she fully understood what she was watching.
Then she watched her father get shot.
"I was horrified and I was scared and I was protective of my children," she said.
But she never believed he was going to die.
"I just knew it wasn't his time."
Host Steven Bartlett asked her about the shooter – Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who fired eight rounds from a rooftop, grazed the President's ear, and killed one attendee before a Secret Service counter sniper ended him.
Ivanka's answer stopped the room.
"There's a lot of sickness there," she said.
Then – forgiveness.
She told Bartlett that in life, the only choice you have is how you respond – and she chooses to dwell on the fact that her father walked away.
Her father is alive.
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That is the whole sentence.
Why Ivanka Trump Sought Therapy and Chose to Leave Washington Behind
Ivanka Trump has not returned to Washington.
She made that decision years ago and has not flinched since.
"I love my father very much. This time around I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics," she posted in 2022 – and every source close to her says that position has not moved.
Jared Kushner told reporters there was "zero" chance she would return to the campaign trail.
She confirmed it on the podcast.
She stepped back and built the kind of life Washington never let her have.
Her three kids are at the ages she knows she'll never get back – Arabella is 15, Joseph is 12, Theodore is 10.
And her maternal grandmother "Babi" – the woman who actually raised her while Ivana was out building an empire – now lives with them in Florida.
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It was Babi's declining health that broke Ivanka completely open on the podcast.
She paused mid-sentence, asked for a tissue, and said quietly: "I have a lot of love for this woman."
A woman now near the end of her life, in a house in Miami, surrounded by great-grandchildren she never expected to have this close.
What Ivana Trump Taught Her Daughter About Living With Intention
There's a version of this interview the liberal media wanted – Ivanka cracking on her father, distancing herself from Trump's second term, signaling a break.
They got none of it.
What they got instead was a woman who forgave the man who tried to kill her father, who credits Ivana Trump for everything she values, and who looked at the worst four years of her personal life and came out the other side choosing gratitude.
"You can't take things for granted in life," she said. "I've learned that in numerous ways."
That is not a woman running from her family.
That is a woman who survived losing her mother, supported a husband through two cancer surgeries, and watched her father nearly die – and chose, deliberately, to build something quieter and better than what Washington offered.
Her mother taught her to live with intention.
She's doing exactly that.
Sources:
- Kelly McGreal, "Ivanka Trump breaks down in emotional interview talking about her mother Ivana's death, other challenges," Fox News, April 9, 2026.
- "Ivanka Trump: My Dad Told Me Two Weeks Before He Ran For President!" The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett, April 9, 2026.
- "'Zero' chance of Ivanka Trump on campaign trail, Jared Kushner says," The Hill, October 30, 2024.
- "Ivanka Recalls Donald Trump's Assassination Attempt, Calls It 'Incredibly Difficult' Time," Inquisitr, April 9, 2026.
